USD 100 billion per year

The USD 100 billion per year goal is the headline climate-finance commitment under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) regime. It was first announced by developed countries at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen in 2009 and formally anchored in the Cancún Agreements adopted at COP16 in 2010. Under it, Annex II (developed) Parties pledged to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries, drawn from public and private, bilateral and multilateral, and alternative sources. The Paris Agreement (2015), through paragraph 53 of the accompanying COP21 decision, extended the goal through 2025, after which a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) was mandated to take effect, with USD 100 billion serving as the floor.

The pledge operationalises the Convention's foundational principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) under Article 3 and the finance obligations of Article 4(3) of the UNFCCC, reaffirmed in Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, under which developed countries "shall provide financial resources." The figure is a mobilisation target — not pure grant aid — meaning loans, equity, guarantees and leveraged private capital all count, a feature developing nations have criticised because it inflates headline numbers and adds to debt burdens. The principal delivery channels include the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Adaptation Fund, and bilateral flows tracked by the OECD's annual climate finance reporting.

The 2020 deadline was missed. The OECD reported that mobilised finance reached roughly USD 83.3 billion in 2020 and the USD 100 billion target was first met in 2022 (about USD 115.9 billion), two years late, according to the OECD's November 2024 assessment. At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan (November 2024), Parties agreed the New Collective Quantified Goal, setting a target of USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries, with a broader aspiration to scale up to USD 1.3 trillion — an outcome the G77 and China and the Like-Minded Developing Countries denounced as grossly inadequate against the trillions required. For Bangladesh, one of the most climate-vulnerable states and a leading voice in the LDC and Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) blocs, the adequacy, accessibility and grant-equivalence of this finance is a core diplomatic interest, given recurrent cyclones, sea-level rise and salinity intrusion.

For the exam, this term sits squarely in International Relations and the Global Economy papers — BCS "Bangladesh in the World" and global-economy modules. Examiners test the distinction between the 2009 Copenhagen origin and 2010 Cancún formalisation, the CBDR-RC linkage, the mobilisation-versus-provision debate, and the 2024 Baku NCQG of USD 300 billion as its successor. Typical question angles ask candidates to evaluate why the target was missed, to differentiate climate finance from official development assistance (ODA), and to assess implications for vulnerable states like Bangladesh. Memorise the four anchor dates — 2009, 2010, 2020 deadline, 2025 extension — and the institutions (GCF, GEF, OECD) that channel and track the funds.